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Werner Kranwetvogel | Photographer
Massgames Pictures |
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> Making of
> About the current series Mass Games: The world’s greatest show > Historical outline > Gymnasts > Backdrop > Music > General Kim Jong Il about the Mass Games
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On official pictures of Mass Games you always see the – admittedly spectacular – wide shots with thousands of participants. But in my work I’m more interested in the people themselves, than merely to depict the ornaments they are forming. For the new series I wanted to isolate small groups of performers, to go as close to the drama as possible, find the human being in the masses, the enthusiasm of the participants, their passion and commitment to the collective within the huge mass displays. For this I needed an official permission to be as close to the playground as possible, with a lens as long as I could carry. Nick Bonner of > Koryo Tours supported this project from the beginning on incredibly, but it took us almost a year to get in touch with someone who was able to give such a permission. I was about to give up on it, when I received an email from Nick at the end of August 2009 – obviously he had managed to open a door back there in Pyongyang. I didn’t want to miss this moment and went in September and October two times in the „secret state“, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (the official name of North Korea). After several more negotiations I stood on September 19th at the very edge of the Mass Games’s playground, with an unparalleled photo permission, closer to the show than any other photographer up to now. |
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